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Libya War Can End Today If Obama Endorses Zuma's Peace Plan

Certainly the U.S., Britain and France can't just come out and conquer Libya. So they invoke "saving civilians" to justify their immoral and illegal war just as the colonial conquerors spoke about wanting to "civilize the natives" in Africa.

[Black Star News Editorial]

Once again the the United States, Britain and France stand as obstacles to peace in Libya.

Through their military organization, NATO, they've rejected an African Union (AU) Peace proposal delivered to Tripoli by South African President Jacob Zuma, to end the Libyan war and usher a democratic constitution and elections.

Yet France's Nicolas Sarkozy, has personally invested so much emotional energy into the Western intervention in the civil war that he will accept nothing less than the death of Muammar al-Quathafi at the hands of NATO. He might fear the still unexplored Libyan accusations that the al-Quathafi government helped finance his presidential election run in France.

Otherwise his position seems a bit suspect and beyond unreasonable. President Barack Obama must not go along with this childish French petulance.

The African Union proposal delivered by South African President Zuma resolves the issues and would end the war.

[] The AU Plan calls for a comprehensive ceasefire and total end to hostilities. It would be monitored by an international force, including from the United Nations. This allows the UN to resume it's role of seeking peace around the world, instead of the illegal regime-change mission it's now shamefully involved in, having been hijacked thanks to the faulty Resolution 1973 sold by the U.S., France and Britain.

[] The plan provides for a humanitarian corridoor so that all victims of the war can be accessed and assisted by international relief organizations.

[] The plan calls for a national dialogue by all Libyans to create a democratic constitution to pave the way for open and free elections, again to be monitored by international organizations. This means that Libyans get to determine the leadership of their choice, not the one now imposed on them, or the one that the U.S., Britain and France want to instal by force of arms through NATO and the Western-backed rebels in Benghazi.

[] The African Union proposal in fact ushers democracy in Libya and helps realize the goals of the majority of Libyans, including genuine anti-Quathafi revolutionists, not those now taking orders from Washington, London and Paris. To highlight the level of Western control of the rebels in Benghazi, when eight Libyan military officers today announced their defection from al-Quathafi, it was done in Rome, not in Benghazi.

The African Plan accomplishes for Libya what Egypt has achieved relatively peacefully; paving the way for a new constitution and for elections.

It precludes the imposition on Libya of a regime which would be unpopular and would beholden to the U.S.. Britain and France; all of which have their own ulterior and national interest goals inconsistent with Libyans.

Some of these selfish motives include favorable and exploitative oil concession arrangements--after all, the leader of the Benghazi rebels told the Financial Times on March 14, that each Western country would be rewarded based on the level each provides in deposing al-Quathafi.

The U.S. also has an interest in a pliant country which would host AFRICOM, the U.S. African military command that is now based in Germany because no African country wants to host the imperial army. AFRICOM is intended for propping pro-U.S. governments and to present a buffer to China's economic conquests in Africa.

A conquered Libya would be ideal for AFRICOM.

Certainly the U.S., Britain and France can't just come out and conquer Libya. So they invoke "saving civilians" to justify their immoral and illegal war just as the colonial conquerors spoke about wanting to "civilize the natives" in Africa.

The looming imperial conquest and occupation must not settle easily on President Barack Obama, regardless of the public face. He knows the history of Western military abuses in Africa. His father Barack senior, was 16 years old when Britain intervened with military forces in Kenya when Africans tried to reclaim their lands from colonials in the so-called Mau Mau uprising. Barack Senior must have anguished as superior-equipped British forces landed on Kenya in order to "protect British civilians."

All it takes for the African Peace Proposal to, gain the attention it deserves and, succeed is for President Obama to pick up the phone and call Britain's David Cameron and France's Nicolas Sarkozy. A 10 minute phone call from Obama would end the bloodshed in Libya.

It would also prove whether there was any meaning to the oft-pronounced Western position to favor African solutions to the continent's problems -- unless, as we suspect that was another one of those cynical positions.

Only the naive or the coalition of the gullible believe that the Western war on Libya has no ulterior motives and goals.

The test is right in front of our eyes.

Will the U.S., Britain and France ultimately accept the AU Proposal presented by Jacob Zuma or will they continue to press their war until they achieve their mission of conquest?